Inefficient protocol overhead and energy consumption are just some of the byproducts of today's 6LoWPAN Neighboring Discovery (ND) protocols. These byproducts are likely attributed to at least two factors. First, existing 6LoWPAN ND protocols focus on router discovery and node address registration to facilitate IP connectivity to nodes. Second, existing 6LoWPAN ND protocols follow a separation of layer principle whereby nodes and routers in the same network are unaware of each other's service features or information in higher layers. Therefore, while a node may discover and attach to another node or router in the network, limited information of a network IPv6 address prefix and neighbor's address may result in a mismatch between nodes and routers. As such, additional procedures and time are required to find an appropriate node or router which can accommodate the expected services such as optimized ND functions or data aggregation functions. Moreover, a router may provide IP connectivity to a node and yet fail to provide the latter with desired services including, for example, a mobility function, and temperature or sensor information.
Router redirect is a problem in the field of networking. Namely, there does not appear to be a methodical architecture on how a current router selects a target router given lack of coordination or authentication between them. Thus, the target router selected by the current router may be inappropriate for the expected services of a specific node.